PREFACE

THE writer of the following pages disclaims at the outset any pretensions toward a final solution of the race problem. The years of study and observation of which the book is the final outcome have strengthened him in the conviction of its insolubility.

There are certain problems which from their very nature do not admit of a categorical solution. They are as perennial as human existence itself. The real meaning of life is found in frankly acknowledging them and in bravely facing the duties to which this acknowledgment gives rise. It is only the dogmatic philosopher or the orthodox theologian who presents us with final solutions and then contentedly takes an intellectual and moral holiday. For the masses of men life is largely a compromise with insuperable difficulties, a persistent and courageous struggle for a modus vivendi.

The race question belongs to this class of essentially insoluble problems. It is insoluble largely because it springs from those deep-lying and slowmoving forces that make for ethnic solidarity or ethnic diversity. The majority of those who have final solutions for it spend their lives at a distance

from the section where it exists in its most aggravated form. The masses of both races at the South are so occupied with the immediate exigencies of the social situation that they have little time to philosophise upon it. They are happy to attain a tolerable adjustment of difficulties. The insistent, pervasive, and inescapable nature of the problem even educates them into the feeling that it belongs to the eternal order of things. Its interferences with their hopes and plans are accepted in very much the same spirit as are the idiosyncrasies of the weather, the behaviour of the market, or disease and death.

The writer's purpose will be attained if he succeeds in indicating a little more clearly what the problem really involves. With this end in view he has brought to bear upon the subject the results of the work that has recently been done in social psychology by such writers as Tarde, Baldwin, McDougall, Ross, and others. The analysis of the social process by which the individual lives himself into the life of the group and at the same time attains mental and moral maturity has been followed by an examination of race traits with special reference to the negro to determine how far they influence the process of becoming social and solid with one's fellows.

The results thus gained have been utilised to

explain the imperfect way in which the negro has assimilated the civilisation of the white and why the colour line appears universally where whites and blacks are brought together in large numbers. In view of the probable persistence of the colour line, the immediate duty of the negro group is found in the creation within its own limits of social traditions and habits which will enable it to develop the type of citizens demanded by American democracy. book closes with an attempt at a restatement of the meaning of democracy on the basis of the conclusions reached in the earlier chapters.

The

As would be naturally expected, by far the greater amount of the illustrative material for the principles laid down has been drawn from the relations of the whites and blacks in the southern states, where long residence has given the writer first-hand acquaintance with the facts. Free use has been made, however, of data in connection with the relations of whites and blacks in the English colonies, especially in Jamaica and South Africa. The attitude of the whites of the Pacific coast towards the Chinese and Japanese convinces the writer that his conclusions hold not only for the negro, but for all races differing fundamentally from the general ethnic type of American citizenship.

The writer wishes to express his gratitude to Senator John Sharpe Williams and to his esteemed

friend, Professor E. M. Weyer, of Washington and Jefferson College, for valuable criticisms and suggestions. He also acknowledges the debt due to a former colleague, Professor J. W. Tupper, of Lafayette College, and to his accomplished wife for their unfailing interest and encouragement in the preparation of the work. Finally, the writer's hearty thanks are due Mr. Bishop, of the Congressional Library at Washington, and his splendid corps of assistants, for their many kindnesses extended to him during the summers of 1911 and 1912.

DECEMBER, 1913.